Hic si stas, hinc eras by frantic (NC-17)

[jenna_marianne]

Title: Hic si stas, hinc eris (Here you stay, here you belong)
Fandom: The Eagle
Pairing: Marcus Flavius Aquila/Esca Mac Cunoval
Categories: Drama, Post-Apocalyptic, Roadtrip, Supernatural (Zombies)
Length: Medium (4,321 words)
Warnings: Violence, Zombie Dogs

Author on LJ: frantic_allonsy (deleted)
Author Website: frantic

Author's Summary:
98 years after the zombie apocalypse, when most of the zombies have been wiped out and the humans have either gone underground or scattered out into scavenging tribes, Marcus Aquila is searching for information.

Review:
Set in a dystopian post-modern-day AU, Marcus leaves his cloistered underground home on a personal quest. Riding a motorcycle across the US, he comes upon Esca (and some zombie dogs).

Though the fic isn't very long, it has great world building and seems larger than the word-count. I also liked how the author cleverly weaves parts of The Eagle canon into the AU; Marcus saves Esca from a very different gladiatorial situation, and is on different--yet still highly personal, still potentially a pipe-dream--quest. An excellent morsel of the post-apocalyptic genre.

He loved the motorcycle. It was the only thing he felt like he had control over, and while he drove it he thought that maybe the old myths about humans flying weren’t so far off. He’d nearly killed himself the first day trying to ride it, but once he picked it up he never wanted to stop. He just wanted to drive this motorcycle all over the United States for the rest of his life, however short that might be.

After his first rush of neighborly friendliness was gone, he thought perhaps he'd regret offering the back of his bike to Esca. He had always been alone, even when he was surrounded by people, and he preferred it that way. But Esca didn’t talk much and it was rather nice to have the warm weight of him against his back, and after only an hour it was as if he’d always been there. He rested his head on Marcus’s shoulder and hung onto him comfortably tight, and after the stop in Weatherford his hands settled on Marcus's hips.

Hic si stas, hinc eras